How a new manufacturing technology will change the world

And what are the chances that the benefits of this new technology will benefit everybody? Zero. Provided that this new tech follows a roughly Moore-ish curve and they become commonplace, the upper-middle class might benefit by not having to run to the store to pick up a spatula that they can make at home, while the already poor will benefit from the lack of jobs at the spatula factory.
I believe that we have seen only the beginning of true inequality in our societies, as more and more of those jobs usually relegated to the manual labor classes become automated, and we depart down a dark road toward permanent underclass.

This technology is absolutely fascinating! One more step towards the "replicators" of the Star Trek universe! Some may say that humans will be worse off....but I would theorize that once this economic shift occurs, the real value of money will be exposed for the fraud that it is. "Buy a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will never go hungry".

The world needs more brainy people. Say, industrial designers, armed with Autodesk software (is there an open-source version?) and a "fabber" get ready. This is fab news.

If this really takes off, the size and number of the factories we'll need to produce these "fabricators" boggle my mind- we need fabricators that can build fabricators.

Leon HAHA:

Obviously we will just build fabbers to build smaller fabbers which will produce still smaller fabbers. There will be an entire industry dedicated to fabbing fabbers.

Apparently the future will sound very dirty.

Presumably the amount of materials that 3-D printers can simultaneously utilize is severely limited, so I can't but be dubious about its real world applications; there are only so many useful objects that can be created from a combination of ceramics, metal, and glass. In a time when people are increasingly surrounded by multifunctional, "smart" gadgets loaded with variegated combinations of exotic materials, how many people will want a 3-D printer only capable of printing basic, "dumb" objects?

It seems apparent to me that 3-D printers will always be limited to a niche market consisting of hobbyists, inventors, specialist producers, and industries with unusually wide product line mixes... at least until alchemy is realized.

Your article link points to a book review
http://www.economist.com/node/18111592

I think the link you want is to the briefing:
http://www.economist.com/node/18114221?story_id=18114221

'Press print and out pops a violin.' I'd like to see the reactions to this of the luthiers around the world who spend lifetimes studying the craft and traditions of violin making, and then weeks perfecting each unique instrument. Somehow I don't think they have much to fear from the 3D photocopier, though...

When we get to a society like that, maybe we don't need to slaves 40+hrs in the office and have like 20hrs work week instead so ppl will have more time to enjoy lives.

@Canadian Econo reader
This tech is hardly "teaching a man to fish", it's more like "get a man addicted to meth". Think about how much a toner cartridge costs today, now multiply that by the net worth of Scotland and you'll probably be in the ballpark for how much decent accessories for these mini-fab machines are gonna cost. I'm sure there will be cheap models that can make stuff out of a couple cheap materials, and yeild cheap "Made in my made in china fabricator" plastic toys and such, but any complex items are gonna require complex materials. Want a new carburetor for your car? Well then you'll need a cartridge of Palladium (not gonna be cheap), plus you'll have to buy the design specs from the car manufacturer to plug into your Ultrafab-2020.
While I lay on the critisism rather thick, I do think this tech will be useful to those who can afford it, but then the industrial revolution was quite useful too, especially when innovative factory owners found a way to put all those lazy children to work.

In reply to the questions of both LeonHaHa and folanrewaju, the answer is 'Yes'. There are open source projects that include standard formats for the exchange of designs. Furthermore, one of the open source projects, the MakerBot, has addressed the issue of fabricators that can make all of the non-electronic parts required to build new fabricators. See http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/3d-printing-and-fabrication-ope... for more details.

In regards to limitations of the existing technology, one key issue is the limited number of materials that currently may be used to 'print' an object. This limits the usefulness of the technology to creating items that are not required to be durable. A 3-d bust of your kid is ok but items with moving parts (e.g., a refrigerator compressor) is another story.

I want a new razor blade. Would the "fab" make t? Sharp edge and all?

No, I prefer a nice three-rotary-blades electric razor. Can the "fab" deliver one, small motor, circuitry and moving parts perfectly adjusted and functioning?

@TheStradEditor wrote: "

Feb 10th 2011 5:34 GMT 'Press print and out pops a violin.' I'd like to see the reactions to this of the luthiers around the world who spend lifetimes studying the craft and traditions of violin making, and then weeks perfecting each unique instrument. Somehow I don't think they have much to fear from the 3D photocopier, though..."
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Tthere are always strings attached...

and running shoes.

@nschomer:

" I believe that we have seen only the beginning of true inequality in our societies, as more and more of those jobs usually relegated to the manual labor classes become automated, and we depart down a dark road toward permanent underclass."

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Perhaps we need to start thinking how to avoid having people who would fall into that class. Education? Maybe Eugenics? Talk of the latter always raised hackles but the alternative could be worse. Youth unemployment around the world is very high. It could go higher. It could easily turn into lifetime unemployment. That would be difficult to tackle through formal education (because much of education takes place in the home).

If, and it's big if, this kind of additive manufacturing, perhaps combined with some post curing, can be made to churn out parts suitable for the highly stressed components of firearms; off of publicly available, down loadable cut files; the force monopoly currently enjoyed by those well connected in the nation state apparatuses may finally have peaked, once and for all.

@nschomer:

"Want a new carburetor for your car? Well then you'll need a cartridge of Palladium (not gonna be cheap), plus you'll have to buy the design specs from the car manufacturer to plug into your Ultrafab-2020"

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So perhaps there is a world market for maybe 5.....

Why 5? Elementary, my dear Watson.

C'mon... you're kidding right ? The Economist is not putting this subject as the opening leader. This is just an advertisement, correct ? And we will all receive a real Economist this week with a real cover but a little bit delayed. Right ?

Certainly the applications of this technology are endless, but I'm wondering just how much this could revolutionize violent crime. All a person will need to do is download a small 3D graphics file and hit print. Snap together a few pieces, and there it is. Unlimited guns and weaponry for anyone who wants it. At first, it would be limited to rudimentary designs, but we all know how quickly technology evolves. Every dingbat, militia, and radical organization in the world could arm themselves to the teeth with virtually no trail of evidence. Has the dark side of this technology been thoroughly considered?

@nschomer:

"Think about how much a toner cartridge costs today, now multiply that by the net worth of Scotland and you'll probably be in the ballpark for how much decent accessories for these mini-fab machines are gonna cost"

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Not sure what a cartridge costs but whatever it is when you multiply by the net worth of Scotland it ain't much.